On the go. Family fare.

Choreographer's Skater Is Weighty

January 16, 1998|By Nancy Maes. Special to the Tribune.

Choreographer Sarah Kawahara must like a challenge. After all, she has created figure skating routines for such opposites as fireball Elvis Stoiko and the fragile-looking Oksana Baiul. So she was probably fearless when she was asked to do the choreography for "DISNEY ON ICE -- HERCULES." Kawahara needed a skater who was brawny to play the lead role and found Troy Goldstein, who is the only person to qualify for the U.S. National Championships in singles, pairs, dance and figures. She needed not an adolescent but a sexy woman to play Meg and discovered Larissa Zamotina, who was a member of the Soviet National Figure Skating Team for six years. And she created moves to express different personalities for the other characters in the story.

Composer Eric Lane Barnes fondly remembers reading the ever-popular "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" as a child. But when he was asked to write a stage adaptation of the book for Lifeline KidSeries, he had his doubts -- that is, until he reread it. "It is actually a very theatrical story, which surprised me," Barnes says. He thinks the play has two messages. "We live in such a throw-away society, but new is not always the best," he explains. "And the story also emphasizes the value of friendship."

"Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel," Saturday-April 5, Lifeline KidSeries, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., $6 in advance, pay-what-you-can at the door on day of performance; 773-761-4477.

Chicago storyteller Mama Edie had heard African-Americans who had traveled to Africa say that it felt like home, and she experienced that same sensation when she went to Ghana. "It felt like deja vu," she says. "I was up at 3:30 one morning looking into the darkness and allowing the night sounds to come inside and it sounded like the most tranquil orchestration that grew gradually, and everything looked and sounded familiar." Her African experiences inspired her to write a story about peace, which she will tell in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

The Cook County Forest Preserve's Winter Festival '98 has events that are common in cold weather. There will be tobagganing, sleigh rides, ice sculpting and cross-country skiing demonstrations as well as ice skating on a brand new refrigerated Olympic-size rink. But people who come to the event also can see demonstration showing how the canine unit for the Forest Preserve's police do their job.